posted Jul 9th, 2012 - Last weekend's leaderboard has its strongest part once again in the Rookie Class. This has happened several times this year, although it has been unusual in the past. It's a great indication for 4way competition, as this category shows how much interest there is at the grassroot level. Today's Rookie Class teams and competitors are the world champions of tomorrow.

The overall leaderboard needed an adjustment though. It shows all rounds all teams complete each weekend, and each team's meet average is calculated according to the number of completed rounds, even if other teams made more or less competition rounds at other locations.

The teams at the Paranodon Cup in Germany completed ten rounds, and Rookie Class team Tegernsair had warmed up after the first six rounds to post a higher total in the last four rounds than they collected in the first six rounds. However, the Rookie Class rankings after six rounds show the Dutch team Belly CreW in 2nd place.

July 7th, 2012			Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie		C,Q,B	L,H,G	O,N,E	F,M,D	J,P,C	A,K,L	Total	Avg
1	Joined at the Grip (US)	MWSL	5	6	4	8	7	6	36	6.0
2	BellyCreW (NL)	INT	2	3	4	7	3	4	23	3.8
3	Tegernsair (DE)	INT	2	4	6	3	1	3	19	3.3
4	4FUNnel (NL)	INT	4	3	4	3	3	1	18	3.0
5	ReRivals (US)	MWSL	3	2	3	4	2	3	17	2.8
6	Novastar (NL)	INT	1	0	5	1	2	3	12	2.0
7	Shinobi (NL)	INT	3	0	3	2	0	1	9	1.5
8	Temppu Valtteri ja Tuhmat Tytöt (FI)	INT	0	2	0	1	1	-	4	0.8

Gerhard Schut, member of the Dutch national 8way team and meet organizer in the Netherlands, had the majority of Rookie Class teams at his event. Four teams competed in Teuge, and he was very happy to see the great interest in 4way competition. Only one Rookie Class team had competed at the Tomscat Trophy 2012, and Shinobi now came back for the team's second meet this year.

He reported that this year's Dutch League meet was hosted by Skydive Center Teuge, also host of the POPS World Meet at the same time. Five Rookie Class teams had actually entered, but Gravity Abuse had to withdraw due to an injury in the windtunnel on Friday evening just before the meet.

Gerhard Schut said that the weather forecast for Saturday was not too bad, but Sunday promised to be a rainy day. This meant that he had to try finishing the meet on Saturday.

The first competition load took off at 9:45 AM with sunny and warm weather. This proved to be the recipe for the whole day as the weather did not let the teams down. The judging panel was at full strength with four judges from The Netherlands and an extra judge Ray from Australia, who was there for the POPS meet. They had a relaxing day as the pace was not that fast. A lot of competitors packed their own parachutes, and this meant that a little more time was needed between the jumps.

The draw turned out to be not that simple. Most of the teams had little or no competition experience, and this meant that formations with outfacing positions were quite challenging. Still the spirits remained high, and with help from coaches Mechie Voermans (Whooops) and organizer Gerhard Schut they were well prepared for each jump. The coaching was courtesy of the Dutch KNVvL Parachuting Association.

Gerhard Schut said that by the end of the day the teams showed some signs of fatigue. This was not surprising as some competitors had never made six jumps on one day, but they still kept going. The last load of the meet was also the last load of the day, and at 8 PM the meet was over.

The awards were handed out soon afterwards and team BellyCreW (including some CF competitors) won the meet even after handicap. Team Novastar finished in 2nd place and team 4Funnel was third. Gerhard Schut pointed out that Shinobi, although ending last in The Netherlands, still did quite well in view of the difficult draw at the team's second meet this year.

He said that a good and safe time was had by all, and it was great to see new faces in the competition: "We were happy to finish the meet on Saturday as Sunday started out pretty gloomy. A big thanks goes to the whole staff team at Skydive Center Teuge for making this possible."

The next meet of the Dutch 2012 season will be the national championships in August, followed by the ESL Finals in Belgium in September this year, and he hopes to see Dutch Rookie Class teams again at those events.